


Home Is Where The Magic Is

by PickyStoryFanatic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Elemental Magic, F/M, M/M, Magic, Werewolves, Witches, mention of suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-28 11:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13903464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PickyStoryFanatic/pseuds/PickyStoryFanatic
Summary: Keith and Shiro had been running from the Galra for a long time. Their most recent stop is a nice town, under the radar, a perfect place to hide. Keith enrolls in school and Shiro gets a job. They are set to stay for awhile, maybe even a few years if they are lucky, until whenever the Galra find them again. Keith even makes some friends here, but the brothers have yet to learn that the town is more than it appears.





	1. Chapter 1

Keith and his brother were new in town. This was their place to live for a bit, just another stop on their road of places to hide, until they are found again and have to run. Shiro had even enrolled Keith in school thinking they would be here for awhile.

The Galra would never let them go, but sometimes Shiro and Keith could pretend. Keith and his brother were hunted because they not strictly human. The Galra wanted them, to make them fight and turn them into mindless soldiers. The brothers have been outrunning them for a long time.

The town itself was small but sat forty minutes from a compact but rich city. The kids at school were a mix of farmers children and those whose parents worked at any of the technology and engineering companies littered just outside the urbanization of the city.

It was a small school, small town, kept secret by the few who lived here. It actually seemed kind of nice. If they kept their heads down and were lucky, Shiro expected they might even get a few years outta this place.

Thinking about the future just dropped a black, unhappy pit in Keith's stomach so he focused back on his cafeteria lunch and on the few kids who he'd accidentally started to consider as friends. This might hurt him and them in the long run, but for now he couldn't help it.

Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Erin had all grown up together. They grew up in barns, riding horses, catching snapping turtles, and watching sci-fi movies. For Keith, they were fun, open-minded people he admired and really liked. They talked and did everything, and even though they teased and joked, there was a lot of sincerity.

“Pidge, if you think that Altered Carbon is too flashy, we are going to have problems.” Lance stopped his rapid devouring of his sandwich (to which he had added potato chips) to throw the warning at Pidge. Katie was her real name but Pidge did whatever she wanted.

“Lance, Altered Carbon is great. One of the best sci-fi shows in a long-ass time. It’s an instant classic. What I'm tired of is all the sex and nudity. I get that there has to be some but why is there so much?”

“Because people secretly want to see all the junk cause it’s usually a mystery and they can only get away with showing it in cool sci-fi and Game of Thrones, where people are open-minded or its HBO.” Erin popped up from behind her book long enough to add that and grab her cosmic brownie.

“Do you want to see junk, Erin?” Lance asked jokingly, because he had to. She ignored him.

Hunk, with his spot-on-name and sunshine soul, brought to the table: “That show is so good. The storyline is crazy and the action scenes- I like those fights better than Black Panther’s!”

Lance threw down his sandwich, chip pieces fell out of it. “Hunk, do not say anything negative about Black Panther. If you do, I- I’m not sure if we can still be friends.”

Hunk defended himself and the movie. “I wasn't saying anything negative! The fight scenes were fine and fun but I think Altered Carbons had more grit, you know?” Lance squealed in confused protest.

Sitting back, letting it play out, Keith wondered how it might have felt kind of weird coming into such a tight-knit group, but he enjoyed it. It was nice just to sit around, listening to their ideas, and add something every now and then. He could listen to these guys all day. And talking to them was pretty easy for him, too. Erin and Pidge had intimidated him at first. Those two had so much focus, intent awareness, like they were trying to get a handle on who he was, their eyes like they were looking into all the cavities of his soul, but now he was used to it and appreciated the sincere attention.

A sad part of him noted that when he would eventually have to leave, the friends would stay together so maybe it wouldn't be too bad for them. That was something he tried not to think of too much.

The day continued without bloodshed until they had to deal with the local ass holes.

As a group they walked to class until Lances books went flying out of his hands and Hunk was tripped and fell.

Gary, medium height, stocky build and a nastily pleased expression stood with Al, tall, skinny but looking for a fight. Gary kicked Lance’s book further down the hall and before it stopped moving, Keith was in his face. Not smoking, but under the surface, there was some simmering.

“Hey, Kogane.” Gary was unintimidated, ignorant to the flow under Keith's skin. The boy sneered unpleasantly at him. Keith's arm twitched back. Gary’s sneer became triumphant. “Oh, look it’s Mr. Degat.”

Keith was tempted to let the punch follow through right into that smug face but an arm caught him and Erin slid up beside him. “Gary, you sick son of an ass hole. Hopefully, you won't do this again. I'm too lazy to think up threats. We’ll just have to surprise you.”

Gary, because of Erin’s jab at his dad who had recently been put in jail by Lance’s cop older brother, got a bit pissed. “Bitch, don't get involved. We know where you live.”

Erin’s smile was sharp. “Try it. My dogs will eat you alive, but maybe not all so I can give some of your chunks to the pigs.”

Gary and Mike backed off, hesitant from her gross, nonchalant threat and Degat’s, albeit far away, attention. Keith and Erin watched them go.

Lance had stood up and collected himself. He was looking at his two on-defense friends and he smiled. “Do guys know that you both get the exact same look when someone pisses you off? It’s an expression that says ‘I could squash you like a bug, but I won't, only because we are so outmatched that it’s pitifully unfair.” Keith and Erin jerked to look at each other, saw their mirrored posture and both hurriedly straightened. Into similar postures. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge all smiled.

“Anyway,” Lance said, “don't worry about those assholes. They’ll get over it in a few days. Besides,” he waggled his eyebrows, “they wouldn't dare really mess with me with this squad at my back.” They all laughed or at least smiled. Keith ran a hand over his face and hair, forcing himself to cool down.

People may make terrible jokes about burning the school down, but Keith is one who could accidentally do it if his temper got out of hand. He tried not to look at how one piece of paper that had been touching him was a bit singed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The growing list of weird things in this town.  
> Note: this chapter is new. The original chapter 2 is now chapter 3.

This Aspen Creek was a weird town. He was slowly making a list of all things that bugged him. Bugged him because he was curious and interested, not the kind of things that set his alarms off and made him want to flee. Not thing kinds of things he and Shiro had been running from. 

If he allowed himself to indulge his ideas without concrete proof, one thought always rose in his mind: There was something _ Other  _ in this town.

The first thing, he noticed when they got out of the car and his foot touched the ground. It had felt like  _ home,  _ like the house he and Shiro had grown up in. There was a distinct ripple of something in the land that, when he breathed deep and really concentrated, caused the fire running through his veins to flicker and swell in response.

It reminded him of his mother. He didn’t think about that too much because he didn't understand why and it just made him sad.  

There were the reasons though, far more tangible ones which he relied on more. 

One, was that there were far less security cameras throughout this town, less than he had ever seen. He, Shiro, and other Supers were very aware of security cameras due to their ability to capture identities and to catch accidental moments of Supers abilities on camera. Less cameras for Keith and Shiro were great, but he couldn't help wonder why. 

Then there were the animals. 

This was the rural north-Midwest so there were coyotes. The new house was also on the edge of a large forested nature preserve. There were definitely black bears in these woods, so some large-animal noises were to be expected.  

Keith knew this, but he also knew that the low glassy howls he would hear the nights on and surrounding the full moon were  _ not  _ coyotes. 

Thinking about those howls caused him to shiver. When he first heard them, they had come from a long distance away, from the heart of the preserve, but their glassy pitch had been like predatory claws shredding down the edges of his mind.

A nice but still weird animal-thing were the cats that had shown up on their second day in the house. Both were long-haired and gorgeous. One was big, black, and had silver-gold eyes. The other had a color scheme that looked more like a fox than any cat he had seen before.

This fluffy red cat loved Keith. Her honey-gold eyes had fixed on him when she jumped up onto the porch, interrupting his internet surfing. She had stared at him, unimpressed when he tried to get her to pounce on string he twitched around. It had taken time, but eventually she warmed up to him. He named her Red and he loved it when she climbed on top of his back or purred away in his arms. 

The weird thing was that the two cats seemed to know a secret way to get into the house. All the windows had screens and there didn't seem to be any other ways in, but the two cats had just kept appearing mysteriously in the house. They wandered in and out, often without the help of the humans who lived there. Sometimes they would be gone for a day or two but they had always appeared again.

It was weird but nice because Keith would often wake up to the surprise of the fluffy red cat curled into his side. Shiro would often be found with his reading glasses, book, and the black cat Zeke curled into his lap. No matter the magic of the cats who seemed to walk through doors, both of the humans enjoyed their company. 

But the most damning thing about this town was something he had seen. It had been eerie and freaky and right out of a sci-fi/fantasy book.  

One of the first weeks in the new house, Keith was on the porch reading when a thrill of  _ something  _ shivered down his spine. There was no wind but something blew through him, a ripple of energy in the air which roused terrified and primal parts of his brain. 

His heartbeat picked up, his ears and eyes tuned in as though he had heard a sound giving away some creature’s presence, but he had hearing nothing.

From his chair on the porch, he could see part of the back yard and past the border of trees into the pasture full of tall grass. 

It wasn't a full moon, but it was clear and the moon was bright enough that Keith was able to look into the field and see the silhouettes of a horse and rider. 

This was no ordinary rider. Shadows seemed to bound around it. The horse itself was ghostly pale, the moon seemed not to merely reflect on it, but to shine from it. It looked like a ghost.

And there was no sound. No hoofbeats or the trample of leaves or grasses, which there should have been. A thin band of pine and maple trees marked the border of their yard and the grassy lands beyond. The rider was just on the other side of those trees. The light from the porch couldn't touch them but Keith should have been able to hear hooves. 

A few of the shadows stopped moving and now their canine heads rose from above the grasses, shadowy figures distinct only because of the moonlight. Their eyes seemed to glow in silver, white-gold, and blue. 

Still in his seat, fear spiked into Keith's chest, hard and irrational. A primordial fear that had him struck still in terror. 

The rider noted their hounds attention and swung the horse around, circling by the patch of trees near the little blue house. 

The horse sneezed and tossed his head. That is when Keith knew that his freak out was justified and it scared him even more. 

Through the fear gripping his heart and mind, he noted that he should be able to hear the hooves. But he didn't. As though the horse wasn't even there, or that its hooves didn't make any sound. 

Thoughts of cryptids swirled through his head, words like  _ ghost, spirit rider,  _ and  _ The Wild Hunt. _

The ghostly horse and rider stilled, facing him, and Keith couldn't see the face in the dark but could  _ feel  _ their attention on his still form. The hold on his heart squeezed harder, and his body was still like prey under a predator's gaze, just before the chase.  

It was unearthly. That horse, rider, and the hounds, they were something  _ Other.  _ He would bet his life on it. 

Another invisible ripple blew through him and this time it gently settled over him, light but sticky. Without his command, his breathing slowed and a dim calm settled on his mind. 

The fear didn't disappear though. No, it was gently pushed down but instead of shrinking it fought harder, like a rabbit flailing in desperate escape in an increasingly smaller cage. 

Then a clear carrying whistle floated through the air. The shadowy canine eyes disappeared. Their heads slipped back lower into the grass. The glowing horse turned away. 

And right in front of his eyes, the rider and horse and the hounds disappeared. Faded out like a ghost. All that was left were the bends and movements of the grasses which swayed as though in  a heavy wind, when the air was dead still.

Suddenly unstuck by fear, his body responded in flight. Into the house and up the stairs. Safe inside from whatever the fuck that had been. But then he also went to his room, and onto the roof where he sat and watched over over his new yard. 

It was harder to see the fields through the trees at this height but he knew whatever that was wasn't gone, wasn't done with its eerie night ride. That undercurrent through the air was still present, and it was  _ not  _ wind because there was no wind at all. No, this was intangible, barely something he could feel on his skin but instead felt in the back, primal part of his mind and in his soul. 

The night continued without incident except that Red appeared out of nowhere on the roof with him. She joined him in his vigil, settled down next to him, also watched the trees, and gave him something to do with his hands. The night progressed, he heard in the distance a few snorts from a horse and once the bay of hounds. But he saw nothing and heard no hooves or paws. 


	3. The encounter and the confirmation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally chapter 2, but then I added a new piece which chronologically came before so now the original chapter 2 is chapter 3.

He finally had a tangible encounter.

One night, Keith was walking alone down the road that eventually lead to the Erin McKenzie’s farm. Just a boy daring the night, gazing at the stars which were so darn bright out here in rural Michigan. 

He knew that Lance's house was a straight walk north through the woods. They had hiked there before and the next time they talked, he was going to ask Lance about what kind of animals, _big_ dog-like animals wander these sprawling woods and fields. 

A tickling shiver slid down his spine and he suddenly tasted mint. 

His intincts had always warned him like this. The shiver meant someone or something was hiding and watching him.  The taste hinted what it was, but he had didn't know what mint warned of. 

He didnt feel danger, but there was something here watching him. 

He stopped walking. The barely existent ruffle of leaves stopped with him. This was a dark patch of the road, big trees hung over head, moonlight struck down through the branches and leaves.He couldnt see anything in the woods, just dark shapes. 

Keith closed his eyes, used his ears and let his eyes adjust. He opened and stared into the forest just a few feet from his left.

There was something there. He could see it.

Just behind the line of trees, Keith slowly recognized the shape of… of the biggest dog-wolf creature he had ever seen.

The longer he looked, the more he could see. Long pointed ears perked at him, massive shoulders and haunches were still, and a big bushy tail riffled in the breeze. Eyes that just barely reflected a hint of gold stared at his own. 

It was still, trying not to be seen. But it looked at him and saw him staring at it. The tail moved, went up just a bit. Then it smiled, showing glints of teeth.

Keith freaked out.

It made some kind of noise, not a growl, thank god, but some kind of whimper or yowl, and it took a step towards him. Then another. 

"You stay away. Go on!" It didnt listen to him. Instead it stretched and then seemed to grow bigger with every step out of the trees.

This thing with glinting teeth, eyes which had started to glow golden, and whose body was near the size of a pony- its eyes were on level with his chest- was about to about to make the easy hop over the rain ditch.

Keith threw out his arms. Brilliant red flames erupted in his hands. Whatever noise the wolf-thing had been making got louder but more confused, shocked.

“Well, you freaked me out, too!” he yelled at the creature and threw a small handful of flames. It hit. Keith could smell the singed hair as it ran. He didn't get it that much, probably just enough to scare and singe.

There were no more noises around so he picked up his step and briskly walked back home, listening all the way.

He finally got back into the safety of the house, he bolted the door between him and the darkness and finally relaxed.

He liked this freaking town but what the hell.

\-------

The next day, they were all at Erin’s preparing for a movie night. He had been blessed with being distracted all day from thinking about that thing, but now with Pidge, Erin and Hunk, he was determined to figure out what the hell kind of creatures they had in these woods...

He opened his mouth to ask, but Lance finally arrived. He flew through the door and pointed a finger at Keith.

“You!” The other three looked between the two. “You, fiend!” Damn, Lance seemed angry. He didn't seem actually mad though, just… high-strung.

“This is it, the jig is up. The news is coming out!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. Thankfully they were alone in the house. The rest of the Mackenzies out and about. “Guys, Operation Hogwarts Letter happens right now.”

Keith was just confused but the other three were all: “What?” “Right now?” “Why?”

“To the lair.” And with that Lance dragged Keith and Erin into her bedroom (they were the easiest and least dangerous to drag).

Pidge, Lance, Hunk, Erin, and Keith all went into Erin's room. The quartet cleared books and clothes from benches or chairs, but they sat Keith on the bed.

Erin also did something weird where she walked around touching the walls before nodding at the rest of them.

“Alright, Lance. Why are you moving up the plans? What happened?” Pidge looked between the two boys, searching their faces and between them for the answers she was missing.

Lance stood in the middle of the room, facing Keith, still upset. “You burned me.” He accused.

Keith hurredly thought back (because this was a problem, he could burn people) but he had never burned Lance.

From the side he heard Hunk say, “Is this about a good joke?”

“You singed my fur.” Lance enunciated slowly, struggling to contain his agitation.

It could only be one thing. “Was that your dog last night that creeped up on me?” Keith asked.

Pidge, Erin, and Hunk guffawed.

Keith was confused why it was so hilarious but explained more. “That thing was huge. And it was just staring at me from the woods. It freaked me out! It even bared it's teeth! I hope it’s okay though- I think I only got it a little bit. I-- um. Had- had some fireworks.”

Lance looked away, rubbing his side. “You only got some fur, so no so long term damage.” Keith thought he heard “just my summer coat gone to shit.” Then he definitely heard Lance say: “And Keith, those were no fireworks.”

In a moment the world dropped out from under him. Thoughts automatically started to circle in his head, a reaction to all the times they’ve had to run before, thoughts like: Shiro is at work. It will take a half hour for me to run home. Maybe I could steal a bike. Then grab the bug out bags...

But then Lance asked a question that threw him out of his reactional panic. Keith had to ask for it to be repeated.

“I said: do you believe in werewolves?” Keith blinked at him.

_Werewolves? Is this a roundabout way of saying they support Supers? What's his angle?_

“Um. Not really.” _Why haven't they started questioning me yet? There’s no ‘how powerful are you?’ ‘have you ever burned anyone?’ Maybe he doesn't know and that was just an offhand comment_.

“Keith,” Lance looked at him with the serious, understanding expression that really did make him look like he would be a good teacher. All discipline and care. “We want you to trust us. It's been two years. I know you and your brother well enough to trust you with my secret.” He didn't say ‘it’s only fair cause now I know yours.’ Keith may very well have run from that, but Lance seemed to know what he was doing.

“So are you sure you don’t believe in werewolves, Keith, my dear mullet-boy?” Keith watched as Lance started to change. His bright blue eyes turned gold, a bright yellow-gold whose gaze turned heavy with the power of a predator. The tan boy’s lanky form grew broader, his shoulder strained against his blue shirt. Lance flaunted his fingers in Keith's gaze, brown claws extended grossly from his finger tips.

Keith looked back up at Lance's face, belief etched over his pale skin, paler than normal now, and nodded. Lance smiled, exposing elongated canines and sharper teeth in general. Keith gulped, reminded of that big creature last night.

“Good. So you promise not to singe me anymore?” Lance was very delighted with himself, Keith could tell.

“Only if you don't stalk me again.” Erin and Hunk laughed.

“Lance has yet to learn that lesson. I don't think he ever will.”

“I don't just go around scaring people.” He relented, “I might hide and then jump on you like a wonderful, charming giant puppy, cause I'm awesome and like my friends.” He tossed up his arms and looked around, daring them to disagree.

“It is nice to pet you.” Erin said, being nice.

“Yes, the ladies love me, as usual.” Ugh.

“Good god, Lance.” Pidge abashed.

Erin was coming in for the guilt attack. “Then do you remember the day you spooked my horse? Which made me fall and I lost Arty in the woods for an hour.”

Now Lance was a bit sorry. “Hey, you snuck up on me. I physically couldn't hear you. And then I let you ride me til we found him. You had a good day.”

Erin shrugged but smiled. “Yeah, I got that idea for a spell from a book. That was a good day,” she said kindly.

Keith looked at her. _Spell_? His brain was slowly taking this all in but he got the feeling he was missing a lot. What was really messing with his brain was the looming future decision of what to do with all this information.

She smiled sheepishly at him but there was relief too. “I'm a little magical myself.” She let out a little whistel and from uner the bed her cat appeared. It was Drake, her short-haired black cat with big green eyes. He plopped himself in her lap. She held her hands together over him then stretched them out. Something shimmered solid around the cat, or it looked solid until the shimmer melted off the form of the feline, revealing something about the same size but... Except that now, where once sat a cat, were wings and scales and what was most definitely a…

The… the little green dragon flapped once or twice to land haphazardly in Pidges arms. The dragon which had just been a cat, flapped a few times to soar across the room into his friend's arms and was now snuggling away, wings spread out to be stroked and cuddled.

Keith looked at the floor. Werewolves. Dragons. Okay...

“So what are you going to do about me?” The group looked at him.

“Well, if you are anything…” Erin put it delicately, not calling him out. “So long as you are not hurting anyone, you are welcome. We won't do anything to you. This town is kind of… secretly run by the supernatural. We hide our own.”

“We protect our own, too.” Lance said with authority. “We, my family and Erin’s, have been here for a long time. So long as you don't mean harm, we welcome all the supernatural and all supers. You and your brother have already been welcomed, to be honest. It’s not all out in the air but we are happy to have you here.”

“Keith, there are supers here. I'm one- a technopath.” Pidge told him straight up. “My family found refuge here. There is more at work than just living off the radar. This town can literally hide. It can hide itself and it can hide people in it. If there is someone after you and your brother. You could live here indefinitely and never be found. That's what my family has done.” She smiled, one full of happiness and relief. “My brother was on the government's radar. You might have heard of him a few years ago. The Green Flash?”

Keith did recognize it. The Green Flash and his family was on the Galra wanted list. But he had seen those pictures. He should have recognized...

Pidge saw his reaction, “Yeah. He played the hero a few times, but then the attention came down and we had to run.” She looked directly at him and enunciated clearly. “I am the sister of the Green Flash.”

It was so weird. All at once he recognized her face from the wanted posters he and Shiro sometimes looked over when they kept track of Galra communications. Even recently he had read her bio and then seen her the next day. How had he never noticed it before?

He put is head in his hands as realization blew through him. He was suddenly very confused, uncertail, and queasy.

"From your reaction, Id say you just realized who Pidge was." Erin noted.

They gave him a minute to process before Pidge called his attention back. She looked at him, earnest. “There is literal magic at work. Some agents came through once. They looked right at my brother and me and never really saw us. It hides you in plane sight from your enemies. They will be right in front of you, and they will look at you, but they will never recognize you. It will never occur to them that you are their target.”

“How is that possible?” Keith was trying to understand and he wanted to believe. He really did.

Erin took up the explanation. “It’s a spell. Complicated and powerful. Think of it as a computer program for the natural world. Its directives are to interfere with someone making the connection that you are someone else, prevents them from associating you with that identity. They will look at you, your possessions, your home and their brains will never recognize that it's their target in front of them. Think of the Fidelius charm from Harry Potter. We, my family, created this charm and laid it over Pidge and her family. We have cast it so that anyone trying to associate th Holts with the Green Flash and his acquaintances, cannot. It’s kind of freaky how effectively it prevents that association.”

She looked up at the ceiling, probably thinking of the moral implications of the spell. Keith had noted that she thought about ethics and morality and _should I_ questions alot more than anyone he had ever met. Maybe this was why.

“Pidge is a secret keeper. Since she just told you clearly, intently, and in plain words, now you know.” Erin paused. “Though...she only intently revealed herself. If you were to look at her brother or father, you would not associate them with their wanted identities. At this point, maybe you are partially aware because she told you some, but you shouldn't be able to react on it. Do you understand?”

Keith put his head back in his hands. “I think so.” This was… a lot. His brain hurt.

He sighed, growled, and then walked around the room, messing up his hair. He’d been sitting too long. But then he got a look at their wide eyes, their watching him, waiting for him to walk out the door. They knew him well enough to know when he wanted to run.

He stalked back over and threw himself on the bed. To hide, he tossed a couple pillows over himself. Two on his back and one covering his head.

“So is this good? You’re… not going to run?” Hunk asked from his seat on the wood bench by the bed.

Keith lifted one end of the pillow to look at the sunshine soul. He could really go for some of Hunk's cookies right now. “I don't know. Should I?”

The big guy looked nervous. “Well, we don't want you to go. I mean- you can do whatever you want. We won't stop you, but we like you. And- and we’d like you to stay.”

Argh, he’s so goddamn nice. “So what are you?” was all he asked.

Hunk just smiled, “Oh, I’m human. I just know people.”

“I think you mean that you are the nicest and best person ever to grace this blue and green rock.” Lace supplied.

“Plus, your cookies hold sway over us all.” Erin added. Keith grunted in affirmation from under his pillow. Both were true.

“So, Keith, who are you?” The question hung in the air while Keith considered it.

They've told him almost everything. A lot of really important stuff. Pidge was risking her life and her family’s life. They all just admitted how protected and what this place was. They trusted him and if he thought about it, he did trust them. 

He sighed. Give him a break, he had some angst. This was hard. But still, he started. “My brother and I are on the run. This is the longest we have been able to remain hidden.” He sat up to look at their faces, monitor their reactions. “We are on the run from the Galra. And the government probably, but their agents don't know much about us. It's the Galra we really worry about. Both my brother and I are Supers. They want to... basically enslave us and make us a part of their Super guerrilla war gang. Their goal is to amass power. After that I don't know.”

Pidge supported him with her own research. “I've heard of them. My dad was monitoring them to keep us hidden, but we never got truly involved with them. We escaped and were hidden before they could find us, but I know who you are talking about. My dad still monitors them.” Pidge looked meaningfully at Lance and Erin. “I've hunted them online. They've mostly kept to Supers but lately in some of their documents, I've been seeing words like 'werewolf' and 'psychic'. I'm worried they are branching to supernstural. It's only been a few times and I've had no real evidence to go on besides that so I haven't brought it to your families yet.” The three shared a significant look.

“So, do you have like a code name or something? Are you on the wanted registry?” Hunk asked, trying to be cheerful.

Keith sighed and nervously rubbed his legs. This was what he didn't want to say. Maybe he should just come all the way clean. They practically know anyway, and a small part of him hoped that there might be chance here. Besides Pidge might already know or would find out soon enough. Plus, it was Hunk. He couldn't say no.

“We, uh, grew up and started in Texas. The government thinks we’re dead. Their name for me was… Spitfire.”

Pidge twitched at that. “But Spitfire was part of a terrorist Super gang for a short time.” Of course Pidge would know. Of fucking course. “He did a lot of damage, what five years ago?”

Keith closed his eyes and just let it out. “I was 13. They had just killed our father and were holding our mom hostage. We have Galra communications codes and have been able to outrun them, because for a couple months, we were with them. They used Mom as a hostage and we were forced to run missions with them. They were all bad and caused a lot of damage.”

He swallowed. “Then mom told us to run and she killed herself. So we ran. That was just about five years ago.” Weird goddamn things seemed to happen in this room. Whatever was happening now, caused them all to hear the truth ring out, clear and strong and sad. Maybe it was magic. Probably was.

None of them knew what to say. The room was filled with horrible, looming quiet.

And then Lance was laying on top of him and the pillows covering him, wrapping his arms around and under, and hugging him tight.

Keith was still and closed off. “Lance you don't have to-”

“You will take this hug.” Lance growled. And so Keith did. There was no way to get out of these freakishly strong werewolf arms anyway. And then Hunk was there, and Pidge, and Erin.

They all sat on the bed and eventually they talked through a few other things. Keith agreed to go home and talk to Shiro, then come back and talk with ‘the elders.’

\--------

Keith arrived home. Hunk had brought him on an ATV while a gold-eyed werewolf loped alongside them.

Keith closed the door and just like last night, put his back against it, happy for the door and the lock, however little security it was. He needed to think.

Shiro stood in the doorway to the kitchen, drying a dish. Paternal charm rolled off him. “Keith, how was your day?”

Keith just shook his head. “Probably one of the weirdest I've ever had.” He snapped his violet eyes up to his brother who worked so damn hard for them. “Let me tell you about it. Then tomorrow we are going for breakfast at the Mckenzies.”


End file.
